Glossary / Churn Rate
Churn Rate
Churn rate is the share of customers who stop buying from you over a period. Divide customers lost by customers you started with, then multiply by a hundred.
Work out yours
Churn rate = customers lost ÷ customers at the start × 100
15.0%
At this rate the average customer stays about 6.7 periods.
Why it matters
Churn is the hole in the bucket. Winning customers faster than you lose them feels like growth right up until acquisition slows, and then the real number appears. Cutting churn is almost always cheaper than replacing what it costs you.
Where people get it wrong
Most small businesses have no churn event. Nobody cancels, they just quietly stop coming back. Define what counts as lost, or you will never measure this at all.
If this number is not where you want it
Silent churn is invisible without a system watching for it. A win-back sequence catches people at the point they have drifted but not yet replaced you.
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See what it would take, free →About Follow-Up and Recall AutomationRelated terms
- Repeat RateRepeat rate is the share of your customers in a period who had bought from you before.
- Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)Customer lifetime value is everything one customer pays you across the whole relationship, not just the first sale.
- LTV to CAC RatioThe LTV to CAC ratio compares what a customer is worth to what they cost to win.
- Conversion RateConversion rate is the share of people who take the action you want.
Common questions
+ Is churn the opposite of repeat rate?
Related but not identical. Repeat rate counts who came back in a period. Churn counts who is gone for good. A business can have both a decent repeat rate and serious churn.
Part of the small business glossary. All six free calculators are here.